Cate Le Bon returns with her 4th album Crab Day, which is her first solo output since 2013's Mug Museum, and much like it's predecessor the recording sessions took place in the US, specifically California, a state which Le Bon seems to have made her home. And it all seems to be going swimmingly for her over the pond if the reviews of her latest live dates are anything to go by.

The gist A very British Christmas record The music Los Campesinos' new EP kicks off with "When Christmas Comes", a Mike Leigh re-telling of Christmas which deals in equal parts with festive mythology and grim realism. Torrential rain replaces the cosiness of a white Christmas, drunken fumbling lust replaces mistletoe based romance. You get the idea, it's Los Campesinos through and through. The rest of the record repeats this witty approach to the Yuletide cash-in via various genres.

A year after the dust has settled on last year's astounding duo of CYRK and CYRK II, Cate Le Bon returns with Mug Museum. The Penboyr born songwriter has relocated to Los Angeles (the traditional rock n roll exile's haven) since then, and this album was recorded at Seahorse Sound studios there, albeit with regular cohorts H Hawkline and Sweet Baboo in tow. Despite the LA connection though, there's definitely more of a New York vibe going on on most of these tracks.

Hot on the heels of the magnificent scatterbrain garage of CYRK, Cate Le Bon is back with an EP of songs, which for one reason or another didn’t make the cut, the aptly named CYRK II. From the outset it is easy to see why these songs refused to be discarded (or used as B-sides for what they are worth in this day and age). The album has a similar flow to it’s older sibling, with stark ballads (“That Moon”, “January”) filtering into the clattering tunes which make up the rest of the record.

In the late 00s the music scene was awash with terrible Nu-Folk/Americana/Folk Rock (delete as appropriate) acts and audiences were lapping them up/humouring them/despising them (delete as appropriate). At around the same time I was starting to think that Cate Le Bon would become the much needed saviour of modern British folk music. I may have been in the minority there as her criminally overlooked 2009 debut Me Oh My received a mixed critical reaction (currently sitting at 63% on this website), live performances were scarce and I wasn’t quite sure if Le Bon would quite make it to album #2.

With the onset of age, with all the uncertainties that growing up and growing older entail, many find comfort in the groove of routine. For rock stars, of course, this is a terrible and frankly dangerous habit, leading even the ones you once loved to disappoint you, churning out the same shtick year upon advancing year with ever diminishing returns (Mark Oliver Everett, I’m looking at you).